REVIEW: The Revlon Girl
By Gary Murray, volunteer theatre reviewer
On October 21st 1966, the children of Aberfan, a mining village in South Wales, got up, had their breakfast, said goodbye to their mums and went to school.
At 9.15am a slurry of coal waste from one of the tips slid down the mountainside and engulfed Pantglas Junior School and neighbouring houses. A total of 144 people were killed: 116 children, five teachers and 23 adults in the houses and streets near the school.
How do you carry on living your life after something like that?
This is the subject of the play The Revlon Girl by Neil Anthony Docking, performed last week in Lewes (including on the 60th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster) and this week’s sellout run at The Lamb in Eastbourne.
Set eight months after the disaster, events are still raw. Of course they are.
A group of mothers meets regularly at a pub in the village. They talk, they cry and try to make sense of it all. The guilt ("if only I’d kept him off that day"); the anger ("they knew those tips were dangerous"); the fear (there were six more of these tips above the village).
To feel something different, anything, to feel human again, the women invite a representative from Revlon to give them a talk on beauty. Low key, because not everyone would understand ("if anyone asks, tell them you’re from the Women’s Institute").
It starts on a bare stage. We meet Sian, (Claire Pontet-Piccolomini), helpful, wanting it all to go well. Then there’s respectable Jean (Casey Rose), and quietly anguished Marilyn (Hope-Marie Henderson).
When the firebrand Rona (Emma Pierssene) enters, proceedings really take a lively turn.
Into this comes the Revlon Girl herself (Emma Wingrove) seemingly a million miles from these women’s experience.
Directed by Sandra Cheesman, the play brings exactly the right balance of sadness, yes, but also warmth, humour and humanity. We see real people struggling with something almost beyond comprehension, in a very real way, and that is a credit to the play, the performances and the production.
Topped and tailed by moving songs from the Ynysowen Male Choir (formed after the disaster), this is another superb night from Green Room Productions.
Long may they continue.
:: Gary Murray was a professional actor for 14 years in theatre, radio, TV and even a couple of operas. After many years on the tech side of the ticketing industry, he now works at Tech Resort CIC and is a volunteer reviewer for Eastbourne Reporter
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